Burning Landscapes
by charliespike18
Summary: Jamie Moriarty gets off on a technicality. Sherlock laughs because she was right. Corruption runs deeper than even he knows.


**A/N Set post 3x19. Hope you enjoy.**

* * *

Jamie Moriarty gets off on a _technicality_.

Sherlock

laughs

Because she was right.

 _Corruption runs deeper than even he knows._

...

He finds her on 37th street.

She has been free for 7 days, six hours and 47 minutes.

And he has found her.

Knock, knock, knock

Her face tells him that he's surprised her.

 _He is the only person in world that can._

...

She shouldn't have stayed in New York.

But she did.

He stands in the door way.

"Hello Sherlock"

she says

And then she smiles like somebody who never existed.

" _I bet you wish you ran away with me when you had the chance"_

...

He can remember the day he fell with a certain clarity.

How was he too know that it was the day she fell too.

He was staring at a case file.

She was painting a burning landscape.

It rained and they

fell and fell and fell

The rain falling own the window like a waterfall

 _You don't get up from that fall._

...

Standing in the door of the 37th street flat she pretends she's not surprised.

Like she was expecting him.

But it hurts to see him, to see the hatred

burn in his eyes

He knows her better than she knew.

 _Stop lying to me._

...

He expected her to have been long gone.

Not so easy to find.

In a way, he thinks she wanted him to find her.

Neither thinks about that

too much.

But they know what it means.

 _We both made the same mistake._

...

She invites him in, her eyes on his.

The apartment reminds him of Irene.

And that hurts

Everything hurts that little bit more when you know everything

was a lie

She notices the pain flash in his eyes.

 _All's well that ends well, right?_

...

She sees a burning landscape in her dreams.

And him, she dreams of him.

Always him.

The fire burning behind.

And sometimes she thinks she should've

stayed Irene.

Just for a second though.

 _There is no Irene, there is only Moriarty._

...

He leaves fifteen minutes after he arrives.

He knows then, that he shouldn't have gone.

Just like she knows she should've left New York.

He sees her at the window as it starts to

rain

Just like it always rained in London.

 _When he closes his eyes his sees a burning horizon._

...

Joan asks where he's been.

He wants to tell her but he doesn't.

It's not like he's going to see Jamie Moriarty again

Sherlock know better than to think she will stay in the country

now

He's just saving Joan the worry.

 _Moriarty's never going to change._

...

The letter comes five days later.

Jamie Moriarty's handwriting scrawling his name on the envelope.

He was right.

She has gone.

But

there is something else

Keys to the 37th street flat

 _She was always drawn to things she didn't understand._

...

He decides that it's a trap

-The keys hidden in the envelope –

So he tries to forget about them

Tries and tries and tires

But he ends up going anyway.

 _She did promise to hurt him_.

...

There is a painting in the apartment

No tricks, no trap

Just painting of a burning landscape and two tickets to a gallery opening in Queens.

And he remembers she was painting the fire the day

he fell (the day she fell too)

He thinks that this is some kind of joke on Moriarty's part.

 _She does appreciate art._

...

He tells Joan that he has tickets to the gallery opening.

But not where he found them.

He thinks she might've guessed anyway.

They go, and he's half expecting her to be there

but she's not

But what he does find shocks him more.

 _She was the only person who truly understood him._

...

He sees it first.

Joan has no reason to notice.

It's just a painting.

They've painted over the name

But he recognises it,

recognises her style.

Irene Adler's original

 _It's full of rain and shadows._

 _..._

He tells Joan what it is.

She remarks on the shadow

And how it looks like him.

He sees the title -

The shadow of storm clouds

And he knows.

It is him

standing in London

She was always talking about the storms.

 _It rained in London the day they fell_

 _..._

He tries to buy the painting.

But someone outbids him.

And he laughs.

He can't even afford a painting of

himself

The irony isn't lost on him.

 _My, aren't you beautiful?_

 _..._

Sometimes he spends his evenings in 37th street flat

Just thinking through his cases

He never asks Joan to come

And she never asks

He's happy he has one person who understands him

So there he sits

with the burning landscape

On his own.

 _He dreams of Irene and of Moriarty_

...

Until that is, she appears.

Jamie.

One cold December morning.

She's just checking up on him.

But that's

bollocks

Of course it is.

 _She always did lie._

...

And they burn

Just for one night

Full of mistakes on both parts

But they've spent so long trying to get up from

the fall

That they both know they're too far gone

 _No one ever treasures anything anymore_

...

He sees her again.

One more time

Years later

And she still has the smile of someone who never existed

He almost hates him self

Because

He still loves her

And she feels the same

 _I ask again – why is love needed?_

Why

Why

 _Why?_

* * *

 **A/N Please Review if you have the time. :)**


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